Caleb Cluff

 

Hawk moths


Easter rain brings the hawk moth

large as a purse; abdomen fat as a friar's finger.

Black velvet button eye, they hang

sharp as jet fighters, wrinkled as coats,

On every wall.



Dog smoking


When this day is gone I shall
put my face against something cool, perhaps some tin
shed out of the light, and not think. I shall

roll my cheeks against it, or the back of my head, and
let the zinc etch its mottle standard and mend me, while

I smoke.

Open my mouth, inhale nebulae and expel dust.

( just to see it unrolling its blanket tongue
on the undiscovered mattress of dark.)



Accident


I bought a new car, and my new car killed a hawk.
Not a loud death - more like a suitcase hitting the floor,

clasp not bursting open, contents not spilling forth.
Just small, feathered death.

No mistaking death (you were the eye)
I have seen you falling from the sky.



 


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